Thor: God of Thunder #3 *Spoilers*

[HaveAtThee]

I love this book. I love everything from the differences between the personalities of three Thors to the fact that none of them gives up. I love the art. I love the foreboding tension that this God-killer is something far worse than I orginally thought. I love that upon seeing the dead gods and ruined locales and hearing what they were like I actually felt angry and sad that wouldn't be able to see what they were like. I love how small the world looks compared to how the gods live. This is what fantasy should be like. This is my favorite book now. I'm impressed.

Couldn't agree more. Aaron and Ribic have put "God" back into "God of Thunder." It isn't just a cliche, it MEANS something with this title.

[sage6paths]

The day esad ribic leaves this book is the day everyone will mourn together. This book is by far the best Thor book. I just can't wait for more.

[Gamma Burst]

Fantastic issue, as usual. I'm in love with it.

I was showing some of my books (this week's Avengers, Hulk, X-Men, Thor, etc) to my 4 year old nephew and He was mesmerized by god of thunder; he couldn't stop talking about the ''black monsters''.LOL.

[samson3191]

It's been a very cool book so far. Top-notch story telling and some absolutely gorgeous art.

[jpbl1976]

I agree.

The colorist in this issue (I forgot his name but I know it is not Dean White) deserves just as much credit as Ribic.

Each page was gorgeous and it took me almost an hour to read the whole issue because I was just admiring each page.

Actually, this is one area where Marvel has really trumped DC. It has the best color artists in the business and DC is only catching up now; they recently hired Rain Beredo and Sonia Oback (both of whom did a lot of incredible work for Marvel years before) to do work for them. Look at the color artists Marvel has: Laura Martin, Dean White, Ivor Svorcina, Frank Martin, Paul Mounts, the aforementioned Oback and Beredo, Frank D'Armata and so on. Heck, even Chris Bachalo is an amazing color artist.

More importantly, probably because Quesada is an artist who uses digital tools himself, color artists at Marvel get billed on the covers just like the writer, penciller and inker. DC still doesn't do this (well, probably because prior to the New 52, DC had abysmal digital coloring). That's a farce because some color artists manage to make even passable art better. Also, my understanding is that Marvel's color artists get a royalty from the books on top of their page fees; I'm not sure if DC does the same thing.

On this tangent, check out Flash -- Brian Buccellato only gets credit because he's the co-writer but if you see the black and white art of Francis Manapul, it's clear he adds a tremendous amount to the visual look of the book. In many cases, the color artist can actually sustain the visual look of a book even if the artist changes -- take a look at Frank D'Armata's run on Captain America; even when Steve Epting was rotating out of it, he helped the book maintain a similar look with Butch Guice or Luke Ross (and others) on the art.

Given all these things, you'd think that Jim Lee, an artist himself like Quesada (though one, I'm convinced has his sensibilities firmly grounded in the nineties -- including his decision to do a Heroes Reborn-style reboot of the DCU and hiring Bob Harras), would appreciate that more and do something about it. Then again, he's probably too busy burning the midnight oil trying to catch his Superman deadlines ;-)

One other thing: I know a lot of my fellow Thor fans have said that Svorcina's style is redolent of Dean White's.

It isn't. Not really.

Svorcina uses more of a water-color style as opposed to Dean White's oil-on-canvas style digital painting. Seriously, you can tell from the hard white stroke lines that White uses for emphasis and highlights (I'd say that style is his signature). Plus, he uses lusher tones occasionally interspersed with matte surfaces -- especially in the latest Avengers series.

Svorcina uses a slightly muted palette with occasional pastel highlights -- very similar, actually, to the way that Ribic paints his own work (I think Ribic actually mentioned this in an interview).

Ultimately, their styles are beautiful and I think their hard work deserves to be looked at a little more closely than dismissed as simply: "oh, it looks the same."

ANYWAY: sorry for the tangent but I just felt that color artists aren't getting NEARLY enough of the credit they deserve.

With respect to the overall comic book: Thor God of Thunder 3 excellent -- by far the best comic book I read this week (although Unwritten was also pretty good and Hellblazer caught me off-guard). A lot of the points made by @HaveAtThee in his original post are very sound and I think that Aaron has really laid a solid foundation for the tone and direction of this book. I especially enjoyed the initial sequence with the curmudgeonly Librarian and, later-on, the interaction between Thor and Iron Man.

What's more, Ribic, while a brilliant artist is also very subtle storyteller; his use of visual cues to shift the reader across timelines rather than resorting to overt rendering is masterful. We are very lucky that Marvel put him together with Aaron -- with a lesser artist, the story might not have worked out in the same manner.

[HaveAtThee]

I agree, I miss specially Amora, also Hela, Karnilla, Kelda ... I will be so surprised if Aaron on next issues decides to use Lorelei (the most missed asgardian girl for years)

... though at least you have Sif on Journey Into Mystery and soon The Valkyrie on Fearless Defenders.

I think Aaron said in an interview that he will eventually include the rest of the Asgardian realm in future arcs. I'm sure we'll see the Lady Sif and Amora sooner or later. I salivate at the possbilities with Aaron and Ribic doing these characters as they expand into Thor's locale.

[Charlie_1981]

I think Aaron said in an interview that he will eventually include the rest of the Asgardian realm in future arcs. I'm sure we'll see the Lady Sif and Amora sooner or later. I salivate at the possbilities with Aaron and Ribic doing these characters as they expand into Thor's locale.

Yeah, I read this interview, personally I don´t know how it would be connected Sif´s appearances on Journey Into Mystery with Thor: God of Thunder, when Aaron decides to use her.

Really with this Aaron´s storytelling and the wonderful art of Ribic, I have a lot of good desires as to know for once Amora the Enchantress´s past and origin, sure it would be one of the best Thor´s stories ever.

[avenging son]

Was Ribic the artist on the Namor series a year or two back? the art looks so similar

[Deep_Sleeper]

Actually, this is one area where Marvel has really trumped DC. It has the best color artists in the business and DC is only catching up now; they recently hired Rain Beredo and Sonia Oback (both of whom did a lot of incredible work for Marvel years before) to do work for them. Look at the color artists Marvel has: Laura Martin, Dean White, Ivor Svorcina, Frank Martin, Paul Mounts, the aforementioned Oback and Beredo, Frank D'Armata and so on. Heck, even Chris Bachalo is an amazing color artist.

More importantly, probably because Quesada is an artist who uses digital tools himself, color artists at Marvel get billed on the covers just like the writer, penciller and inker. DC still doesn't do this (well, probably because prior to the New 52, DC had abysmal digital coloring). That's a farce because some color artists manage to make even passable art better. Also, my understanding is that Marvel's color artists get a royalty from the books on top of their page fees; I'm not sure if DC does the same thing.

On this tangent, check out Flash -- Brian Buccellato only gets credit because he's the co-writer but if you see the black and white art of Francis Manapul, it's clear he adds a tremendous amount to the visual look of the book. In many cases, the color artist can actually sustain the visual look of a book even if the artist changes -- take a look at Frank D'Armata's run on Captain America; even when Steve Epting was rotating out of it, he helped the book maintain a similar look with Butch Guice or Luke Ross (and others) on the art.

Given all these things, you'd think that Jim Lee, an artist himself like Quesada (though one, I'm convinced has his sensibilities firmly grounded in the nineties -- including his decision to do a Heroes Reborn-style reboot of the DCU and hiring Bob Harras), would appreciate that more and do something about it. Then again, he's probably too busy burning the midnight oil trying to catch his Superman deadlines ;-)

One other thing: I know a lot of my fellow Thor fans have said that Svorcina's style is redolent of Dean White's.

It isn't. Not really.

Svorcina uses more of a water-color style as opposed to Dean White's oil-on-canvas style digital painting. Seriously, you can tell from the hard white stroke lines that White uses for emphasis and highlights (I'd say that style is his signature). Plus, he uses lusher tones occasionally interspersed with matte surfaces -- especially in the latest Avengers series.

Svorcina uses a slightly muted palette with occasional pastel highlights -- very similar, actually, to the way that Ribic paints his own work (I think Ribic actually mentioned this in an interview).

Ultimately, their styles are beautiful and I think their hard work deserves to be looked at a little more closely than dismissed as simply: "oh, it looks the same."

Very insightful. I'm glad you mentioned Flash in there, because the artwork in the comic is absolutely amazing. I have seen Francis Menapul's stuff and it is great by itself (the man is really good), but the colours add a spark you just cannot overlook. Some of my favourite people working in the industry are the colour artists, who have improved the look of comics dramatically this era. It started off with what Wildstorm was doing. I remember back in the day Whilce Portacio used to talk about digital colouring for Wetworks and how different people were using it at Wildstorm Studio. Then I really noticed digital colouring during Lobdell and Travis Charest's Wildcats. Obviously, Laura Martin (nee Laura Depuy) really made the colours pop with books like the Authority and Planetary.

In short: The colourists need to be mentioned more when it comes to this art.

One guy who I miss these days at Marvel is Dave Stewart. You mentioned how colourists create this consistency when the pencil artist changes, I'm immediately reminded of Dave Stewart making the transition in artists during Bendis' run on DD look very consistent. I'm obviously not talking about Alex Maleev to Terry Dodson, but there were a couple of issues done by a different pencil artist I cannot recall the name of and I remember thinking how the colours really did make the transition pretty seamless.

Also: I had to look up "redolent". Nicely done.

As for Thor! Bring on issue #4!

[jackolover]

Actually, this is one area where Marvel has really trumped DC. It has the best color artists in the business and DC is only catching up now; they recently hired Rain Beredo and Sonia Oback (both of whom did a lot of incredible work for Marvel years before) to do work for them. Look at the color artists Marvel has: Laura Martin, Dean White, Ivor Svorcina, Frank Martin, Paul Mounts, the aforementioned Oback and Beredo, Frank D'Armata and so on. Heck, even Chris Bachalo is an amazing color artist.

More importantly, probably because Quesada is an artist who uses digital tools himself, color artists at Marvel get billed on the covers just like the writer, penciller and inker. DC still doesn't do this (well, probably because prior to the New 52, DC had abysmal digital coloring). That's a farce because some color artists manage to make even passable art better. Also, my understanding is that Marvel's color artists get a royalty from the books on top of their page fees; I'm not sure if DC does the same thing.

On this tangent, check out Flash -- Brian Buccellato only gets credit because he's the co-writer but if you see the black and white art of Francis Manapul, it's clear he adds a tremendous amount to the visual look of the book. In many cases, the color artist can actually sustain the visual look of a book even if the artist changes -- take a look at Frank D'Armata's run on Captain America; even when Steve Epting was rotating out of it, he helped the book maintain a similar look with Butch Guice or Luke Ross (and others) on the art.

Given all these things, you'd think that Jim Lee, an artist himself like Quesada (though one, I'm convinced has his sensibilities firmly grounded in the nineties -- including his decision to do a Heroes Reborn-style reboot of the DCU and hiring Bob Harras), would appreciate that more and do something about it. Then again, he's probably too busy burning the midnight oil trying to catch his Superman deadlines ;-)

One other thing: I know a lot of my fellow Thor fans have said that Svorcina's style is redolent of Dean White's.

It isn't. Not really.

Svorcina uses more of a water-color style as opposed to Dean White's oil-on-canvas style digital painting. Seriously, you can tell from the hard white stroke lines that White uses for emphasis and highlights (I'd say that style is his signature). Plus, he uses lusher tones occasionally interspersed with matte surfaces -- especially in the latest Avengers series.

Svorcina uses a slightly muted palette with occasional pastel highlights -- very similar, actually, to the way that Ribic paints his own work (I think Ribic actually mentioned this in an interview).

Ultimately, their styles are beautiful and I think their hard work deserves to be looked at a little more closely than dismissed as simply: "oh, it looks the same."

ANYWAY: sorry for the tangent but I just felt that color artists aren't getting NEARLY enough of the credit they deserve.

With respect to the overall comic book: Thor God of Thunder 3 excellent -- by far the best comic book I read this week (although Unwritten was also pretty good and Hellblazer caught me off-guard). A lot of the points made by @HaveAtThee in his original post are very sound and I think that Aaron has really laid a solid foundation for the tone and direction of this book. I especially enjoyed the initial sequence with the curmudgeonly Librarian and, later-on, the interaction between Thor and Iron Man.

What's more, Ribic, while a brilliant artist is also very subtle storyteller; his use of visual cues to shift the reader across timelines rather than resorting to overt rendering is masterful. We are very lucky that Marvel put him together with Aaron -- with a lesser artist, the story might not have worked out in the same manner.

I appreciate your comments on the colorists at Marvel and second your comments at their worth to the books. As you've mentioned some of my favorites like Dean White and D'Amarta, I'd just like to give a mention to Chris Sotomoto which I have enjoyed on many runs at Marvel. His pearlescence on walls and floors is unique to the game. And I never mention Paul Mounts, but his brilliant colors are a standout in books like Fantastic Four. Mounts has been a stalwart for many years at Marvel and I take him for granted too often.

[jackolover]

Aaron created fifteen new concepts in just one issue, more than Kirby at his peak.

See. The concepts Aaron as shown in #3 are just as impressive as the ones Fraction came up with in his run. But I agree with you. The Celestial City is one impressive concept, and the library of Gods too. I wonder if Thor looked up his own book yet, and who was writing it? I had a concept like this that got turned into a Silver Surfer book once, but the idea of the book of life wasn't taken up in that. I always felt that an unseeing hand writes the incidents of all of us down in some book, like some unending travelogue.